2007 National Outstanding Young Farmer Winners

Kevin & Liz Anderson (MD),Shane & Erin Slivka (MT)Jaime & Angela Larse (WI),Andrew & Erin Kimmel(PA)

The 2007 National Outstanding Awards Congress was held February 8-11, 2007 in Mesa, Arizona. Nine out of the ten finalists were able to come to Mesa, courtesy of our corporate sponsor, John Deere, and experience the weekend while meeting new friends and interviewing with the national judges.

 

The nine met with the judges on Thursday morning and the rest of the weekend was open for building friendships, learning about other operations, and seeing parts of Arizona. Dinner on Thursday was at Rawhides Restaurant, Friday morning found us up early for breakfast and then a trip to the John Deere Phoenix Demonstration Site where participants were able to try out some of John Deere's most up to date line of construction equipment. Friday afternoon found half of us headed for a Dairy tour where 10,000 cows make Shamrock Farms their home while the other half toured the Maricopa Agricultural Center where they got to see a research-scale GLP cotton ginning facility and ponds with koi, white amur, tilapia and catfish, just to name a few. Friday evening's dinner was held outside at the Desert Botanical Garden. Saturday included the annual OFA Forum, lunch sponsored by John Deere, the OFA annual meeting and the highlight of the weekend, the awards banquet MC'd by Orion Samuelson and where the four national winners were announced.

 

The four national winners were Andrew and Erin Kimmel from Pennsylvania, Shane and Erin Slivka from Montana, Jaime and Angela Larse from Wisconsin and Kevin and Elizabeth Anderson from Maryland.